SocialPC

Depth Of Processing Model

There have been many experiments done on depth of processing and the
selfreference effect. The Depth of Processing model of memory maintains that
howdeep something is encoded into a person's memory depends on using certain
typesof processing. This relates to the self reference effect because it is
believedthat people have the tendency to remember something better when they
can relateit to themselves. People who can personally relate to something
have thetendency to embed it deeper into their memory. Craik and Tulving did
a series ofexperiments on the depth of processing model. They had
participants use a seriesof processing methods to encode words at different
levels; shallow, moderate,and deep. The subjects were shown a series of
words and ask questions about thewords that would provide a "yes" or "no"
response. At theshallow level they were asked questions about whether or not
the word waswritten in capital letters. At the moderate level of processing,
the subject wasasked questions as to whether or not two words rhymed.
Finally, the subjectswere asked about words in sentences and whether or not
they fit. This was thedeep level of processing. After participants had
completed the task they werethen given a surprise recognition test with the
words that they were just askedquestions on (target words) and then words
that they have never seen before(distraction words). The results of the
experiment showed that people rememberedthe words better that were at deeper
level of processing (Craik and Tulving

1975). Although there was some
criticisms about the above experiment, Craik and

Tulving performed more
experiments each time refining the D.O.P. model. Therewere thoughts that the
structural tasks were easier and not as much time had tobe spent on them
therefore people did not have as long to look at those wordsand could not
study them like the other tasks. Craik and Tulving then made thestructural
task take equally as long as the other tasks. The results remand thesame as
the previous experiments. Craik and Tulving also originally started withfive
tasks, but then narrowed it down to three to avoid a ceiling effect.
Theself-referent task was later added to model by Rogers. Palmere, Benton,
Glover,and Ronning (1983) did a series of experiments continuing the
research on thedepth of processing model. They used paragraphs and within
the paragraph therewere sentences that were supported and then ones that
were not. After thesubjects were through reading all the paragraphs, they
were then given arecognition test on the information in the paragraph. The
results of thisexperiment showed that the subjects remember more information
about thesentences which were supported with other information rather the
ones that standalone. This supports to the depth of processing because
according to thisexperiment people remember information that had more detail
which would requiremore thinking which would in turn encode the information
at a much deeper level.

The deeper information is encode people are more
likely able to recall theinformation. Another experiment was done by Bower
and Karlin (1974) which testedthe depth of processing model on memory fue
faces. They used college studentpictures out yearbooks that were put onto
slides. They then showed the slide tothe subjects who were asked questions.
The subjects were then ask to look at aserious of slides and asked whether
or not that person had appeared in theoriginal group of slides shown. The
results of this experiment showed that whena person had a more detailed
response about a person, the subject was moreinclined to remember that
person from the original group. This relates back tothe Depth of Processing
model because it showing by using more detail,information can be processed
more deeply.